Singer Jason Donovan stepped down from his stage role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, because he feared he would end up like ageing British crooner Cliff Richard.

The former Neighbours actor and '80s pop hunk enjoyed his time as the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's London theatre production of the biblical tale during the early 1990s, but felt he had to quit before he became typecast.

He says, "The adulation and the money were incredible. But I didn't want to be a new Cliff Richard in a satin suit any more. I didn't want to stay complacent on one level and not be individual. I want to do different things in my life, and I don't want to be perceived as the one character. God bless Cliff Richard but that was where I was going."

-Jason Donovan Pictures

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)